James May’s Toy Stories: The Great Train Race (BBC-2 12 June 2011)

August 23, 2016

During the first series of James May’s Toy Stories the ex-Top Gear presenter scored only one failure in his attempts to achieve the impossible with toys from his youth. That was the model train challenge, running a model railway track between two Devon towns – Barnstaple and Bideford and running model trains along them. Despite getting the almost all the townsfolk of both places involved the challenge failed.

James being James though he naturally wanted to try this again and this time succeed. This time out it’s bigger than before as James brings in the two German owners of the biggest toy railway museum in the world to race along side.

Once again the two towns are quick to lend their support as is James friend and fellow railway enthusiast Oz Clarke.

James is the perfect presenter for this type of show, a major expounder of the British way of life that has vanished for ever and probably never was in the first place. Once again he even brings along his own model train The Flying Scotsman which first time out didn’t make it round the first bend but this time brings home the crown for the British contingent. It turned out to be a close fought race all the way through though, three trains for the Germans, three trains for the English – steam, deisel and futuristic and the German’s had the pace but not the reliabilty leaving the British the overall winners.